We wanted a place to share the stuff that normally stays inside the shop: cool builds and projects, lessons learned, process thinking, and whatever the team’s currently geeking out about.
This issue covers everything from hybrid manufacturing and production workflows to custom tabletop miniatures and customer stories.
Glad you’re here, Jon Toews
Senior Vice President - Head of A3D Manufacturing
one million thank yous to our community
In June, we officially shipped our 1 millionth part. What started with one part turned into a million thanks to the builders, designers, engineers, shop owners, and partners who trusted us to bring their ideas to life.
Honestly? Hitting this milestone feels even better than we imagined.
To celebrate, we’re hosting an open house on July 23rd at our headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. We’d love for you to join us as we celebrate the community behind modern manufacturing and what you've made possible.
Angel, our packing and shipping expert, channels serious creativity into his tabletop campaigns. For this project, he designed and printed a fully personalized orc bard/ranger infused with Hispanic cultural elements — honoring his heritage while staying true to the character’s adventurous spirit.
Printed in PA12 White and finished with Gold Cerakote, it turned out looking straight-up epic. It’s the perfect example of using the same printers and know-how we bring to customer jobs for side quests.
FitMyFoot completely changed the custom orthotics game. Customers now just snap a photo with their phone, and boom — custom insoles, slides, and flip-flops show up at their door in under two weeks (down from two months!). We print them on our HP Jet Fusion machines and the quality is every bit as good as traditional injection molding. Pretty cool, right?
Taylor Moore launched CopperStar USA without sinking money into tooling or inventory. He uses the HP MJF Nylon-12 printing + pro finishing to make tough, great-looking automotive parts (roof pass-throughs, mounts, shrouds, etc.) on-demand and uses a distributor model to go to market. As sales grew, he scaled into cast urethane and injection molding, saving time and money. Smart way to start a business!
Additive or traditional? More teams are realizing the answer is both.
One automotive customer came to us with a rough idea and a clear end goal: injection-molded parts at scale. Instead of optimizing for the prototype, we designed for where they wanted to end up. Because the part was designed that way, each transition as they grew was faster and cheaper than it would have been otherwise.
What do Disney Park hardware, Adidas shoe prototypes, and production manufacturing have in common? Dakotah Simmonds has worked on all of them. From reviewing CAD and solving manufacturing challenges to helping customers scale from prototype to production, Dakotah gives a behind-the-scenes look at what actually goes into turning ambitious ideas into real, buildable products.
Will Glover’s path into manufacturing started on a die-cutting press and eventually led him into AS9100 quality systems, AI workflows, and additive manufacturing.
Whether he’s reviewing complex aerospace requirements, building smarter data systems for a3d, or explaining why a 0.25" spacing issue once grounded an aircraft, Will brings equal parts precision, curiosity, and humor to the shop floor.
